Fat tire bikes

I think we’re all familiar with the Surly Pugsley and it’s well know that Moots custom builds snow bikes. Plenty of other options are available for fat tire bicycles for snow and sand riding.

“FatBikes” is the trademark for the bicycles from Wildfire Cycles in Alaska. The frames and forks are specially built to take ultra wide rims and tires for use on Alaska’s deep snow. They use the DeSalvo FatBike fork. DeSalvo also can build up fat bikes for you in Oregon.

What got me thinking about Fat Bikes was mention of this titanium fat bike from Speedway Cycles in Alaska. The “Fatback” has mondo clearance, vertical dropouts, 100mm forks, and 100mm bottom bracket for all possible gears. Because it’s titanium, it’s rust free.

Vicious Cycles builds the Thunderwing. This steel bike features proprietary cable routing to keep the kinks out (important in extreme weather), 3 bottle mounts for water and fuel, and sealed tubes to keep the water out as well as a seat tube drain hole. A stainless steel bottle opener is welded to the frame.

I think all Evingson does is fat tire bikes. Check out this build with a Rohloff 14 speed hub.

Plenty of people convert their 29ers to “half fat tire” by replacing the front fork with a fat fork and putting a normal 26 inch tire on the rear. I just had to mention Jeff Jones “Fat Fork” option, though, because he specifically mentions the bike’s “lateral stiffness, vertical compliance” on the website — ha ha!

Most of these photos were taken from the bike builder website or from this MTBR discussion on fat tire snow bikes.

Many of these independent bike builders will be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland in a couple of weeks. I’ll be there too and let you know about the goodies I see there. I’ll also have some giveaways (Kryptonite lock, Swrve pants, 53 Mile Per Burrito stickers) — I just need some ideas on how to do the giveaway!

I'm not sure why but I have a strange attraction to fat tire bikes. I've never owned or ridden one, but for whatever reason I think they look pretty sweet! Seems like a snow bike is a perfect match for a Rohloff hub!